Cinderella Round 2

Today we had a fitting for Natalie with Grandma Sue for her flower girl dress for Auntie Em's wedding in June.  In the short time since she last was a flower girl, I forgot just what it does to a daddy to see his baby girl in a beautiful princess dress.  Since this was a fitting, the dress wasn't hemmed and so it scraped the floor hiding Natalie's feet.  That meant that when she walked it just looked like she was gliding along like an angel.  Add to that the fact that Sara is a bridesmaid and was also wearing her dress and lets just say it's a good thing I got a preview before I see them walking down the aisle in June.  This fitting went MUCH better than the last one, in fact she like it so much she didn't want to take it off, but we made her don't worry Aunt Em she won't be wearing it before the big day. :)  Before she got out of it she told me that she was Cinderella and that I could be her prince and asked me to dance with her.  Man that kid knows how to get her daddy.

This afternoon Natalie had one THOSE sneezes.  You know the kind where the boogie comes out and goes to about her belly button.  All of you parents know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, she went to brush her hair back and grazed the dangling rubbery goo with her hand and got some in her hair.  As I got a kleenex to wipe her off she looked at me and said "Oh.   Daddy.  I have sneeze in my hair"  I laughed so hard I almost couldn't wipe her off.

Natalie is also still loving her baby sister.  She constantly wants to be around her and go check on her.  She also gives her hugs and kisses and likes to try and make her smile.  She also comforts Hallie when she's crying, often saying "It's okay baby sister, don't cry."  Hallie is starting to smile.  I forgot just what it feels like the first time your child smiles at you on purpose.  It's amazing, that's all I can say.  She doesn't smile alot and it doesn't last very long.  She sometimes needs help so we have to tickle her face to make her muscles react and form a smile, but hey it's still sweet! :)

I guess I haven't written since Easter so I will fill you in on that.  It was BUSY.  Honestly it was so busy I forgot to slow down and enjoy the day.  The weekend started with an Easter Brunch at my mom's house with her side of the family.  It was a blast and the weather was gorgeous.  Natalie and her cousin Destiny had a great egg hunt in the back yard and a real live Easter bunny was hopping around in the back yard as well.  Mom had found some "eggs" shaped like animals and she thought Natalie would love them...not so much.  Natalie didn't want any animal "eggs" in her basket.  She would pick them up and throw them back down, even once she realized they had candy inside.  My dad snuck one in while she wasn't looking.  Five minutes later I hear "Hey, what's that doing in here?  I don't WANT animals!" and she chucked it back on the ground.  It was an excellent start to the day.  After that we went to Sara's parents to see Uncle Eric and Aunt Christina while they were in town.  We had a nice dinner and enjoyed spending time with them.  Natalie got to have a solo Easter egg hunt there.  She liked it but started to slow down and had to have grandma help her finish.  She liked it well enough but the long day was starting to wear on her.  Easter Sunday was wet here just like most of Kansas.  Church was packed but the service was nice.  That evening we went to Aunt Penny's house for the Hunt Easter celebration.  With the weather being so wet we had the egg hunt there inside.  With this being Natalie's third egg hunt she was pretty much done.  She didn't want anything to do with it, she just wanted to play with toys.  So we got what we could out of her and then let her be.  By that time there was no reason to fight with her.  She was warn out but we are pretty sure she enjoyed it none the less. :)

When bargaining with a two-year old...

...be careful. :) Last night Natalie was just crying and crying and crying. She has been doing this for the last week or so, originally because she was sick and now we aren't really sure why other than she's two. Her normal bath time is around 8:30 and then she heads to bed and is out around 9:15 and up around 8:00 a.m. Works great. Last night I heard her tell Sara through sobbing "I'm ready to take a bath now". It was 7:15. Sara made sure she was really wanting to take a bath and Natalie was adamant that she was. So Sara said alright. Natalie immediately stops crying, starts jumping around and says "can we watch videos now?" The latest Natalie fad is to watch a few of her disney songs on YouTube. She will sit there and watch them for an hour if we let her, she just loves them and it's disney music, what's wrong with that? :) I piped up and said no, that if she was taking a bath this early it was going to be without videos. She starts BAWLING. Sara looks at me and says "I told her she could watch two." I missed that part of the conversation. So basically Natalie is willing to take a bath and go to bed at ANY TIME just as long as she can watch two videos before that. We managed to make her wait until 8 and then she got to watch her videos, take a bath, and head to bed. Little stinker. :)

Story time

So many stories I don't even know where to begin.  First someone who Natalie sees on a regular basis is in serious trouble.  We are not sure who at this point but when we find out, you are in soooo much trouble.  The other day at dinner I was joking around with her asking her all sorts of silly questions.  We were talking about her day and I was asking her about what Hallie did.  I asked her something like "Did Hallie have ice cream?" and then "Did Hallie eat pizza?".  Natalie said "No, she didn't."  She thought for a minute and said "What were you thinkin' about?"  Sara and I tried our hardest to not laugh because that is not something you want to hear from your two year old for fear that at Sunday School she looks up at the teacher and says "What were you thinkin' about?"  So whoever you are, know that we are looking for you. :)

Last weekend my dad and I painted Natalie's room.  It was of course miserable outside so hanging out all day painting seemed like a great idea.  When we broke the news to Natalie she said "Oh, can I have green like Hallie's room?"  We said no, she got purple so she would have her own room.  She said in her saddest little voice, "But I want green like Hallie."  We convinced her that her own room would be better.  She "helped" us for a few minutes and painted a few streaks on her wall.  She was so proud of herself and walked around the rest of the day talking about how she "helped" paint her room.  That night when we were done and had the room all put back together I took Natalie in to show it to her.  She loved it!  I was so relieved.  After what she said earlierI had this nightmare of her walking in and going "No, I DON'T WANT PURPLE!" and throwing a huge fit, but she didn't.  She did the opposite, she went "ooooh, it's purple!"  A few minutes later she was in Hallie's room for something and I walked in and asked her how she liked her new room color.  She stared straight up at me and said "Oh, it looks terrific, dada.  I just love it!"  Makes a daddy proud. :)

Tonight we went for a walk.  It was a little windy, but other than that pretty nice.  Wrigley was her usual self, more on that later.  Natalie is getting over being sick so she was getting kind of fussy and wanted to walk with us about a mile from our house.  I said, how about you ride on my shoulders instead.  She was good with that so up she went.  When she's on my shoulders she likes to play with my ears.  Not sure why but she does.  Sara and I were walking along chatting when I hear above me "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear ears, happy birthday to you!"  I almost dropped her as I was laughing.  Like I've said before, that girl kills me.

Another dinner story.  Last night she was in the worst part of whatever illness she was dealing with so it was all we could do to get her to eat anything for supper.  I promised to go get her ice cream if she would eat her dinner.  So she fussed a little bit and then said "you go now to get the ice cream."  Sara said that she needed to eat two more grapes before I would go.  So she said okay.  A little back story.  Even when she's healthy she sometimes will only eat fruit if she shares with you.  She goes one for one.  You eat, she eats.  That's her deal.  Well, last night she picked up two grapes and said "I will eat these two.  Mommy you eat one too."  So Sara picked one out of the bowl on the table and started to eat it.  Natalie screams "NO, you don't eat that one!"  So Sara puts the grape down and Natalie says "You eat this one" and extends her hand with one of the two she had.  So they both eat a grape.  Natalie looks at me with a mouth full of grape and says "now you go get the ice cream"....sneaky devil.  She thought mommy's grape counted on her tally.  Sometimes I think she's too smart for her own good.

Today I got my first phone call from Natalie at work.  It was very important too, I assure you.  I answered the phone and could hear Sara in the background saying "put the phone to your ear" and then I heard "Wrigley went outside."  Me: "She did?"  Nat: "She went poopy."  Me:  "That's a good dog."  Nat:  "Yah, here mommy, I'm done."  I asked Sara if that is what she called to tell me and Sara said no, she told Natalie she was going to call daddy at work and Nat said "Oh, I will talk to him first and you next" So apparently she felt the need to tell me that my dog went the bathroom.  I love having a two year old! :)

Now for the Wrigley story.  That dog likes to go for walks.....a lot.  She pulls and pulls and pulls the whole time, no matter how long we go, no matter how many times she goes the bathroom.  She pees about every 10 feet, I swear.  This act gets very frustrating for me as I have to stop with her every time she goes and my right arm is now three inches longer than my left.  The most embarassing thing is when she takes a #2.  I feel like a horrible dog owner because I don't clean it up and I just pray that nobody is watching.  Most of the time she does it in lots that are obviously owned by the city or in a corner of a yard where no one has appeared to walk for ages anyway so I don't feel that bad about it.  Not tonight.  She pooped right by someone's mailbox.  Door was open and everything so I was just hoping they weren't watching, I have to be honest.  They were.  Oops.  Enter angry lady.  She comes flying out the door and stands on her porch "Hey, are you going to clean that up?"  Honestly, we weren't if we hadn't got caught.  But since we did we said, sure we'd be right back after we got a bag and scooper.  Apparently the husband didn't buy it.  About half a block from their house, he pulled up and stopped beside us IN HIS VAN and said "Are you really going to go back and clean that up?"  We assured him we were and that was good enough for him as he drove off.  And after we got home, I did go back and clean up after my dog.  We won't go on a walk without the scooper and bag again, I assure you of that.  But honestly, did he have to chase us down with his van?  It's just a little dog poo, it's like fertilizer.  It's not like it's a nuclear weapon that could kill you for goodness sake, it's just poo.  Is it worth all the fuss?  Would you chase someone down if their dog pooped in your yard and they didn't clean it?  Me, I would just go scoop it up myself, what's the big deal?  Oh well, I learned my lesson and will be a responsible dog owner from now on.